Research: The role of design in sports participation
The amount a town or city invests in sports-related infrastructure may impact how active the people who live there are, according to new University of Georgia research.
Well-designed, aesthetically pleasing urban environments, the study found, affect how likely residents will be to engage in sports.
Researchers from the UGA Mary Frances Early College of Education said this could signal ways communities can make direct improvements on how healthy its citizens are.
“If there’s a TV in front of you, you would probably feel encouraged to watch some programs. It’s as simple as that,” said Troy Zhao, lead and corresponding author of the study and a doctoral student in the Department of Kinesiology. “In this framework, we see this same thing but with how stimulating, built environments positively affect sports participation behavior.”